European banks, such as HSBC, that have got there without state support have rightly been applauded.
There are, however, some impediments to growing further in Asia, and especially to catching up with Western competitors such as HSBC and Citigroup.
Analysts say the problem that firms such as HSBC are facing in expanding their Islamic finance business is that different Muslim countries interpret Islamic law differently.
Some of Europe's biggest banks such as HSBC, Santander of Spain and Britain's Standard Chartered have significant exposure to emerging markets, where growth prospects have remained strong.
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He cites the ethical lapses at banks, such as HSBC (money laundering) and Bank of America (mortgage abuses), before focusing on a different imperative: access to healthcare.
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Britain has some natural strengths here: empire endowed it with large banks such as HSBC and Standard Chartered, which have deep roots in emerging economies and relationships with firms that wish to trade with them.
The married father of three took millions of pounds of investors' funds, promising to invest the money in lucrative rights-issue releases from companies such as HSBC, Lloyds TSB, and the mining companies Xstrata and Rio Tinto.
While businesses and individuals in the U.S. can already trade yuan through Western banks such as HSBC Holdings PLC, the move by a Chinese-owned bank marks a stamp of approval by China on the expansion in yuan trading.
So does this mean, to use a resonant phrase gaining a good deal of global traction thanks to the power of social media, that banks such as HSBC are not only "too big to fail" but also "too big to jail"?
He refused to be drawn on what the final outcome would be, but he did not deny that expectations of banks such as HSBC that they'll be forced to hold what's known as core tier one capital equivalent to around 10% of risk-weighted assets are in the right ballpark - or about 3 percentage points more than the new 7% minimum for all banks.
Likewise, small Hong Kong banks, such as Dao Heng, belong in a different group from such giants as HSBC Holdings.
Some credit card issuers, such as Capital One and HSBC, more than doubled their mail offers during this quarter versus the prior quarter.
Singapore's DBS Bank is spreading across Asia and is becoming a formidable competitor to the big international banks such as Standard Chartered, HSBC and Citigroup in some of the world's fastest-growing markets.
For Roudebush, who has worked with senior executives at companies as diverse as Google, Bacardi and HSBC, the reason for such large returns is clear: leaders cast a long shadow.
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Overall debt levels in many Asian economies are lower than in the West, but debt burdens relative to individual income are up to 30% higher compared with the U.S. in countries such as Malaysia, China, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and India, HSBC research shows.
The rise in basic materials such as precious metals was caused by a weakening of the dollar against other currencies, HSBC analyst Howard Wen said.
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